The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2014, and October 31, 2015, are automatically nominated for the 2015 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on October 23, 2015, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

KIRKUS REVIEW

A novella by the author of Where the Air is Clear, The Good Conscience, and' The Death of Artemio Cruz finds him at brilliant dark play as he swiftly carries the horror to its proof and inevitable fulfillment. There is a fated air to the advertisement ("Wanted, young historian, conscientious, neat. Perfect knowledge colloquial French") that draws Felipe Montero to the lair of Senora Llorente. She asks him to edit the papers of her husband, sixty years dead. He accepts the engagement after gazing into the green eyes of her niece Aura and seeing the surge of the sea in them. His affair with her soon takes a sinister turn, but the net of sorcery ensnares him. He is captured and absorbed until he knows the truth of his lover's and his own identity. Black on black, with all the accoutrements of the classic horror tale, this attains a fatalism that is the fullest realization of fantasy.

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